Casting Call

My most recent Florida trip truly is the trip that never ends. It just keeps giving and giving, long after it’s over.

One day during our trip, Little Miss and T-Rex were playing and rolling around on the floor, when T-Rex rolled over on Little Miss’s left arm. She fussed and cried for a few minutes and I checked it over and had her wiggle all her fingers, and that was the end of it. She was back to playing and goofing off. The next day she said “OW!!” when she bumped it once, and I asked her if it was still sore and looked at it again, but she shrugged it off and was running around again. I figured her muscle was still sore from getting rolled on.

Then this past weekend, The Narrator and I noticed that Little Miss was taking extra caution with her left arm. Once in awhile she’d say “OW!” after moving it or bumping it, but other than that it did not interrupt her playing or horseplay. Then Sunday evening while helping her get out of the bath tub, The Narrator noticed that her left wrist looked slightly swollen. But you had to put the 2 wrists next to each other and cock your head to one side and squint your eyes to be sure, because even while a little bit swollen, a tiny 4-year old wrist is still tiny. That was when we decided she needed an xray. She didn’t think she needed an xray, and it took a good hour of convincing. Apparently, the last trip to the doctor (which involved 5 shots) scarred her.

Finally, this afternoon while we were in town, I took her to the walk-in-clinic, kicking and screaming. She finally settled down and by the time we took the xray she had decided this was an ok adventure. I mean, it’s not everyday you get to take a picture of your bones. In fact, that became a pretty cool thing. The doctor let her look at the xrays and showed her which where her fingers and her arm bones and then said, “And this is where she has a torus fracture on her radial bone.” Nice. Apparently it’s a common fracture, and isn’t even a complete fracture and heals rather quickly – 4 weeks for an adult, 3 weeks for a child. The doctor tried to make me feel better that I didn’t catch it sooner. She said that it’s not uncommon to have kids come in weeks after the event to discover they have a fracture. I can see why. A half hour before the xrays, Little Miss was swinging from a rope on a friend’s swingset and I was convinced I had imagined the whole thing.

The doctor called over to another office where we could get a cast put on, and about 90 minutes later she was sporting a very bright pink cast, which she decided was rather cool and could be a tool to milk Daddy for toys. She’s adorable, hilarious, and having fun showing it off. And it looks like she’ll get it off just in time for 4th of July fun. And I’m sure she’ll get years and years, ok a lifetime, out of reminding T-Rex that he broke her arm when he was 2.